


The Things You Leave Behind

by ashlockley



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Canon Queer Character of Color, Canon Queer Relationship, F/F, So much angst, also time for heartbreak, angst overload, but always a light at the end of the tunnel, loving the new tags, self-made fanart cover yay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-02 22:34:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2828432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashlockley/pseuds/ashlockley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This isn't happening," Asami murmurs. Korra frowns.</p><p>"What are you saying? Course it is. Now, teach me how to drive. I wanna learn how you did that slidey thing around the bend."</p><p>"This isn't real. This isn't our first drive together. We're not really in this car, not really on the track and I'm not really talking with you. None of this is real."</p><p>“What?” Korra eyes her suspiciously. “ Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on the wheel, Sami?”</p><p>“Stop,” she chokes out. “Stop lying to me. I know this is in my head. It’s fake.”</p><p>Korra's smile turns sad. "It's as real as anything, Sami. It's as real as you want it to be."</p><p>                                                                                       ~oOo~</p><p>Where Kuvira conquers Republic City, and Team Avatar and her allies are shattered and scattered. Asami Sato feels more broken than she ever has, but there just may be something that can piece her and the world back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Everyone out, now. _Now!_ "

 

Then the room explodes in a bright, blinding purple flash and crumbles around them like shadows melting away from light. For her, it's like time is trickling by - she sees Su's hands slowly going through the motions as she bends the metal in her kids' armor and hurls them out of danger, sees Mako pushing Bolin behind him even as his brother is trying to protect him, sees Tenzin airbending Ikki and Jinora and Milo through the window.

 

Then, she sees Korra and their eyes meet. Everything stops in its tracks and they just stare at each other through the cloying purple glow, frozen in time and in the middle of the end. The other woman has a weak, fond smile and Asami returns it, wondering why, then things rush back into place and she feels her feet leave the ground. Korra and her outstretched palm gets smaller and smaller in her vision until she can barely see her outline against the spirit energy, then something hits her on the head and-

 

When she wakes, it's outside and she can hear the hum of people talking under the buzzing in her ears and feel the wind on her skin. A blur comes into view, which sharpens as she blinks into Mako and she feels her world tilting back into place when he helps her up. As she looks around, she realises they're not outside, just under the tonnes of rubble Bolin is keeping from falling on them, and it hits her almost immediately that she can't see Korra amongst the coughing, wheezing band of people.

 

She turns back and runs, ignoring the shouts of _come back_ and _it's too dangerous_ , and screams and yells her name until her voice is hoarse and her throat slaked with the dust in the air. She searches high and low through the ruined building, dodging falling rocks and collapsing floors, for that stupid girl who saved her rather than _herself_ when she turns and-

 

A tan, bloody hand reaches out from a pile of shattered concrete and she shouts, in joy, in relief as she starts pulling the rubble off of her friend. She works fast and hard and soon she can hear Korra breathing from under the rock, labored and shallow but still so very much alive. She has to be alive, Asami thinks, has to be, because the world has already taken her mother from her and she can't lose her father and her best friend all in one day.

 

But the world is cruel.

 

Korra's clothes are soaked in blood, her own blood, so wet and stained Asami can't even see the blue underneath. An ugly, twisted shard of metal pokes from her belly and it shifts and digs in just that much deeper each time Korra takes a breath, rewarding each one with enough pain to make her moan. Asami swallows, quietens the screaming voice of despair in her head and begins to work, tearing the sleeves from her top and tying them together. She winds the makeshift bandage around the shard a few times then ties it around Korra's waist to stop the bleeding and the intrusion into the body, and then works on shifting more rubble away to get her out.

 

"Asami."

 

It's enough to stop her moving. Asami looks up and sees Korra looking at her with that smile again, feels their hands coming together and something twists in her chest. The other woman is crying, but she's pretending she isn't - _goddamn it, Korra, you're not made out of stone_ \- and trying to push herself up to sit even when the pain is killing her. Asami makes her lie back and yells for help, then begs her friend to hang on because she's the strongest woman she knows and-

 

"Asami, I'm so cold," Korra murmurs as blood trickles from the corner of her lips. "It's so dark."

 

"Don't worry," she hears herself say. "Just relax. Stay with me. You'll be alright, I know you will."

 

"I need to say something. I shoulda earlier, but I've got to now," Korra continues, like she didn't hear at all. "I wrote to you, Sami. To you. Only you. I trust you."

 

"I trust you too," she laughs almost hysterically. Where are the others? Don't they know where she is? They have to be here, right here, right now.

 

Korra looks straight at her, just like before, and there's a flash of clarity in her bright blue eyes that cuts through the haze of pain and confusion.

 

"I love you."

 

Asami can hear footsteps, distant but approaching, but the pounding in her ears threatens to drown that out entirely. She blinks through the tears that are flooding down her cheeks, grips tighter on Korra's hand and wishes they were somewhere else and this was happening in a different way, with Korra all dressed up in her water tribe clothes and her in that red dress she's been saving up for the right time to say the things she wanted to say.

 

"I love you, Asami. I love you and I shouldn't have left those three years because I shoulda been with you and let you help me," Korra says, her voice weak and eyelids heavy. "It's all my fault."

 

"No, no, shhh," she begs. "You needed me and I wasn't there. I should've known. I should've found you."

 

"I want- I need to hear you say it. Please."

 

"I love you, Korra," Asami breathes out, "and you can hear me say that, scream that from the rooftops if you just hang on-"

 

Korra shudders, and Asami cries out, anguish and regret clawing at her like knives, and screams for Mako, Bolin, anybody to find them and save her because she _loves_ her.

 

"I think I'm going," Korra mumbles. "It's- it's kinda warm again. It's nice."

 

" _No!_ " she howls. "You're staying right here, with me and everybody else who loves you, and you're not going to die! You're the Avatar! You can heal yourself with the Avatar state and you'll be okay-"

 

"If I die in the state, there won’t be any more Avatars. The cycle has to go on. It can't end with me."

 

"You have to try, please, I'm begging you. Don't leave, not again, I need you…"

 

Korra's grin is bright, and for a moment Asami thinks she's going to do it. Then her hand cups her cheek and pulls her in, pressing their lips together, and the moment passes, and she knows that Korra isn't. So she pours everything she has felt and is feeling into that kiss and hopes the other woman can understand the depth of her emotion, every facet of it and realise that she is not alone and she can rest happy-

 

Asami feels Korra's lips smile against hers. She smiles too, but her heart is breaking inside as she cradles her best friend's head and weeps.

 

"Hey," Korra whispers. "You missed a spot."

 

Asami tilts her head up into the kiss, and then all of a sudden it feels like she’s drowning in flames as they pour down her throat. She pulls away, back arching, and screams as her blood catches fire, coursing through her veins and burning its path through her body relentlessly.  The heat blazes behind her eyes and her head feels like it's too tight, ready about to burst. Her vision whites out until all she can make out is Korra, with her eyes closed and her head rolled over on one side, then even that blurs and fades away until all that remains is white. She feels herself falling backwards and hitting the ground, and as the wretched footsteps she prayed for finally arrive it's finally too much and she lets herself submit to it.

 ~oOo~

_She's sitting in the driver seat of a Satomobile - her Satomobile - driving around the race track and when she looks right Korra's next to her, laughing and whooping as Asami powerslides the car around a hairpin and powers it through a bend. It's getting late, but she promised the other woman she'd take her out for a spin so here they are._

_She's beautiful, her sapphire eyes gleaming in the evening sunlight and a grin on her face, and her cropped hair is whipped back by the wind whistling by them. Her own hair is shorter too, styled like she saw her mother's once, and in the outfit she always wear when she's building something. Korra's wearing her fighting gear - not the light blue top, but a darker, navy blue - and it strikes Asami that this isn't right at all. This isn’t how she remembers it._

_Her foot slams down on the break and the car screeches to a halt, and she can barely breathe. Her hands are clenched tight around the wheel, but her grip still isn’t as tight as the vice clamped on her chest._

_"That was amazing!" Korra enthuses. She's looking at her excitedly, hands balled into fists and waving around energetically, and grinning like a madman, and Asami feels like somebody has reached inside her, wrapped their fingers around her heart and squeezed. "When do I get a go on this baby?"_

_"This isn't happening," Asami murmurs. Korra frowns._

_"What are you saying? Course it is. Now, teach me how to drive. I wanna learn how you did that slidey thing around the bend."_

_"This isn't real. This isn't our first drive together. We're not really in this car, not really on the track and I'm not really talking with you. None of this is real."_

_“What?” Korra eyes her suspiciously. “ Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on the wheel, Sami?”_

_“Stop,” she chokes out. “Stop lying to me. I know this is in my head. It’s fake.”_

_Korra's smile turns sad. "It's as real as anything, Sami. It's as real as you want it to be."_

_"But it's not - we're in that building, I'm unconscious and you- you left me again."_

_The last part comes out more accusatory than she means it to, but it feels too good to let herself wallow in the pain she feels. Korra grasps her hands with hers and leans forward, kissing her again, and Asami can't do it, not when she knows she's just imagining all of this and the person she loves is actually- so she pushes her away and feels the tears running down her cheeks as she buries her face into her hands._

_"Sami…"_

_She finally looks up from her hands and now they're sitting on a bench in Republic City Park. She blinks and then they're in her workshop in the mansion, with the crackle of electricity and the smell of solder in her nostrils. Another blink and they're in the noodle bar Bolin loves so much. Blink. The Southern Water Tribe. Blink. Ba Sing Se. Blink. Zaofu. Blink. The booth in that hotel they met in after those three long years apart, with their fancy glasses on the table and faceless waiters waiting on faceless patrons around them._

_"The places may not be real, but they never mattered. This is all that ever did. I'm here with you - for you."_

_"You," Asami begins, then swallows. "You died."_

_Korra has the decency to look bashful. "Yeah, I kinda did, didn't I?"_

_"Then how are you real? How are you here?"_

_"It doesn't matter. I'll always be with you, Asami. I love you."_

_Asami manages a smile, and interwines their fingers together. "I love you too."_

 

_~oOo~_

"-ami! Please! Asami! Can you hear me? You gotta get up! Kuvira's coming this way, we need to bug out fast!"

 

Asami blinks blearily as Bolin helps her get up and supports her as she walks down from the mountain of rubble. She really is outside this time, somewhere downtown and deserted, and their ragtag group of defenders is in front of them clearing a path through the debris.

 

"Where- where are we going?"

 

"Kuvira's won the city. President Raiko and General Iroh have been taken prisoner, and her armies have occupied all of Republic City. We're getting out whilst we can so we can regroup and form a plan to defeat her."

 

Asami looks around, but she already knows the answer. "Korra…"

 

Bolin is too quiet, and that tells her everything she needs to know. Ahead, Mako is carrying somebody in his arms and Tenzin's cloak is wrapped around them from head to toe, but Asami knows Korra when she sees her and it doesn't hurt any less than it did before.

 

"We found her next to you," Bolin manages to say. His eyes are wet, and he's blinking furiously in an attempt to fight back the tears. "We tried to save her, but…"

 

"She was already gone."

 

"Yeah."

 

Asami looks over her shoulder back at her broken city, and Kuvira's hulking mechagiant standing above it as its destroyer and conqueror. She grits her teeth.

 

"We'll beat her, Bolin. We'll beat her, then I'll make her pay."

 

Inside, she feels something flicker in agreement, and smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a been a bit of rollercoaster on the internet ever since the release of the finale, but it seems to be the overwhelming consensus that Korra and Asami are finally together after everything they've been through. So can I just say how happy I am Korrasami is canon?
> 
> That is not to say other shippers are wrong - such is the nature of shipping in the first place (Makorra shippers ship away, please). But the people who object to Korrasami for reasons like, "OMG they're just really good friends, stop making everything gay" aren't right. As far as I can see, the development of their relationship has been as heavily implied as it could possibly have been on a show by Nickelodeon (sidenote - allowing heterosexual relationships in children's TV shows or TV, movies or video games in general whilst barring homosexual ones and labeling them as somehow more "adult" is not being protective of peoples' minds, it's homophobic and just another big problem in the entertainment industry) and in the words of Mike DiMartino, "if you think this final shot was denoting mere friendship, you're kidding yourself".


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sami, I’m serious,” Korra says once they break apart. Her hands are firm against her waist, keeping her right where she is, and the way she’s looking at her demands attention. “I’m still here and I’ll be damned if you pass me off as a hallucination. You live in a world where people can move seas and mountains with their minds and you can’t accept the possibility I’m real?”
> 
> “That’s different and you know it is,” Asami replies. “This- this isn’t possible. It can’t be.”
> 
> “Why?”
> 
> ~oOo~
> 
> In which Asami grieves for the lost, doubts her sanity and loses control.

Lin joins them on the way out of the city, bruised, battered but as indomitable as ever, and Asami looks away until she's done hugging her sister and her family because it's still far too _raw_. They slip away through the streets without drawing any attention, and it’s dark by the time they make camp deep in the spirit wilds, far from the reach of Kuvira and her soldiers. Around the small campfire everyone is silent, tending to each other’s cuts and scrapes, and n the distance, she can hear the faint sound of thudding, metal footsteps drifting over from Republic City and focuses on the fire instead, blotting out the noise with the wood crackling in the flames.

 

Avatars, in accordance with tradition, are cremated and their ashes scattered in each of the four nations. It's been done for centuries - to date, only Avatar Roku's remains had never been handled in that way. It’s meant to reflect the nature of the Avatar – they represent all people, not individual nations and their ideologies, and as one falls, another takes up the fallen banner and carries it forward – and life goes on. But Korra never was one for tradition anyways, and as Tenzin quietly notes the Earth Empire won't exactly let them into their territory. Asami is quiet, but grateful - seeing the woman she loves reduced to ash in the wind is something she's not sure she could survive.

 

So they bury Korra.

 

She insists on digging the grave herself and stares down Bolin until he backs off and lets her do as she wants. It seems that he's told the other earthbenders to stay clear because she's not bothered during the rest of the night as she works at the foot of the banyan-grove tree with a metalbent spade, and though her arms scream in protest and her legs threaten to give in under her still she keeps digging. She owes Korra far more than she ever had the courage to give, and this is something she has to do to honor that debt.

 

When finally she's done, Asami doesn't call for anyone for a while. She sits alone, huddled in the corner of the hole, and then it all hits her at once. Korra loved her. Korra died. She dug Korra's _grave_. Whatever should be will never be, and all that’s left is that dream of an impossible promise. It’s not true, she tells herself, she can’t feel Korra’s head leaning on her shoulder, she’s just by herself in a pit she shoveled for someone she loves and it makes her so bitter and furious at the same time.

 

In the morning, she finally goes back to the campsite. The fire’s long since burnt out and everyone is still asleep, save for Tenzin and Lin. They’re high up in the trees, keeping watch over the group as the sun begins its lazy journey over the horizon, and she can feel their eyes on her as she slips into the tent Korra is in.

 

She’s lying on a makeshift bed of leaves and branches, her eyes closed and her skin far too pale, and Asami feels her strength fade again. In her mind, she sees the woman’s smile, hears her laughter and her vibrancy and it jars so very horribly with what is in front of her that she feels sick to her stomach. For what seems like the thousandth time, hot tears burn down her cheeks as she kneels by her friend, and tries her best to steel her heart as she gathers up the woman in her arms and carries her out into the open.

 

The walk back to the tree seems far slower than it was before, but she doesn’t particularly mind or care. Korra’s tucked in tight against her body and as they move through the forest, the dappled sunlight plays over her face and even in its muted essence, this moment is one of the most intense of her life. Asami smiles bitterly, shifts her grip and walks that final few feet to where the grave is.

 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asks softly. “I wish you could see. I wish you were here.”

 

_“Pfffttt. I’ve seen better.”_

 

She jolts to the side and for a second, her heart stops as she struggles to keep balance and Korra’s body in her arms, but suddenly they’re empty and the woman’s standing beside her, her arms crossed over her chest and a teasing smile on her lips.

 

_“You remember watching the sunrise over the sea back home? Now that was something.”_

“Shut up,” she breathes. “Just shut up and come here.”

 

She pulls Korra into a hug and holds on tight, because she knows she’ll snap out of it soon and she’d rather enjoy whatever time she has even if it is her imagination that’s telling her how warm Korra is pressed against her, how strong those arms are around her and how safe she finally feels.

 

_“Oh geez, you’re squeezing way too tight, Sami. I can’t breathe!”_

 

“I don’t care. I don’t even care that I’m out of my mind. If it means I get to see you one more time before I- I say goodbye, I _don’t care_.”

 

_“Hey,” Korra’s hand cups her cheek, nudges her until she looks up from the ground and meets her eyes. “You’re not crazy. I made you a promise, remember? I said I’d stay with you, so I will.”_

“You don’t have to lie, Korra. I’m okay with what this is,” she murmurs, pulling her in and kissing her because she needs to have something to remember. Korra’s lips are rough and chapped like she recalls – they even taste the same, just a hint of jasmine from all that tea she loves drinking – and the way she kisses is just as tender as before. If these are the kind of delusions she’s going to get, she’s happy to have them for the rest of her life.

 

_“Sami, I’m serious,” Korra says once they break apart. Her hands are firm against her waist, keeping her right where she is, and the way she’s looking at her demands attention. “I’m still here and I’ll be damned if you pass me off as a hallucination. You live in a world where people can move seas and mountains with their minds and you can’t accept the possibility I’m real?”_

“That’s different and you know it is,” Asami replies. “This- this isn’t possible. It can’t be.”

 

_“Why?”_

“Because it’s never me! Things never go right for me. My mother died, my father died – the company I built is always falling to pieces in some way or another, and then you- I never even had a chance with you.  I- I’m just not that lucky.”

 

She’s out of breath, on the verge of crying yet again – come on Asami, hold it together – and can’t bring herself to fight anymore. She holds onto Korra and burns each moment into her memory so she will never forget the sensation of her touch, wishing that this is all that she will ever need but knowing it isn’t.

 

_“Sami,” she says gently. “You are the strongest person I know. Yes, things don’t always go your way and yes, you haven’t had the easiest life but you don’t need luck because you **fight** for what you want. Future Industries wavers but it never falls because you are its backbone, and as for me- why do you think I’m here? You got me, Sami.”_

“I- I-”

 

_“It’s okay.” Korra’s smile is fond, and she squeezes her hands one more time. “When you’re ready, I’ll be right here. You just have to look.”_

 

“Asami? Are you alright?”

 

Asami blinks, startled by Tenzin’s voice, and suddenly Korra’s back in her arms. She swallows, and keeps walking.

 

“Come on,” she says. “There’s something we have to do.”

 

~oOo~

 

The funeral takes place without pomp or circumstance and Asami knows Korra would have appreciated at least that. She carries the woman down into the grave, heart stammering in her chest, and it takes everything for her to leave her there and climb out. She watches as the earth swallows her up, leaving no trace that Korra's even there, and feels so hollow as she stands there in front of that bare patch of dirt. One of the twins (Wei? Wing? She can't tell) quietly passes her something - a small, barely born banyan sapling - and pats her gently on the shoulder before departing with his brother, leaving her with the plant in her hands. When she finally leaves, she wipes the mud from her hands and leaves behind a tiny green shoot planted right in the center of the grave.

 

Back at the camp, the talk turns to their situation, and she finds herself tuning in and out of it at random. One second Mako's talking, then it's Tenzin, Bolin and back to Mako again. She feels unbalanced, like something isn't quite right inside, and tries to will it away.

 

“We need a plan,” Su declares. “Kuvira will be searching for us. We need to get off the mainland as soon as possible, or we’ll never get a chance to fight back.”

 

“How? Without transport, we won’t stand a chance. We can go as fast as we can on foot, but those mecha suits will catch up with us in no time and we’re not ready for another fight.”

 

“Lin’s right.” Tenzin steps out from where he’s sitting, his arm in a sling and a gash across the point of the arrow on his forehead. He looks just as weary as Asami knows she is too, and not knowing where Pema is is clearly taking its toll on him. “I can’t fly, but the other airbenders still can. If they go ahead, they might be able to get word to the remaining United Republic ships and send us help before Kuvira arrives.”

 

“If those idiots are still using the tricks I came up with, I know exactly where they are,” Bumi agrees. “We’ll still need to spread out, just in case.”

 

“And Baatar can help us avoid the Earth Empire patrols,” Su adds, and Asami’s blood runs cold. She watches as the man limps over by his mother, and the roar of _murderer_ repeats over and over in her head as he talks, getting so loud she can’t even hear him.

 

“They’ll follow the beaten track – the suits can move through the trees, but usually the soldiers won’t risk getting bogged down or lost. So if we move through the forest, we should be able to-”

 

“We?” Her fists are balled so tight they’re starting to go numb, and then there it is again, tickling away at base of her spine like it's trying to break free. She breathes in, and though she knows the air is freezing it feels like it's scorching her lungs and like tossing a match into gasoline that small tingle erupts out of its cage and into life. Her control melts into nothing in the face of the fire, dissolving away to leave nothing but her fury and sorrow and for once since everything happened, she feels _alive_. “You did this – you and your _fiancée_! You murdered Korra with your damned weapon and what- you expect us to _trust you_?”

 

She can’t- no, she doesn’t want to stop herself when she goes for him, her fist connecting with his face with a gruesome crack, and she keeps punching and kicking after he goes down. It feels so damn _good_ to do it, to make him suffer just a fraction of what Korra felt, so he knows exactly what he did to them and how much she wishes he was dead.

 

“You _murdered her_ , you _bastard_!” she screams, struggling as Mako pulls her back and Su rushes to her son’s side, defending that worthless traitor despite all he’s done and that just makes her even angrier. “She was trying to save us – all of us – and you cut her down for standing up to your insanity!”

 

“Asami! Stop! You’ve got to calm down-” Mako grunts as she throws him off, colliding with his brother and sending both of them into the dirt, and as she lunges forward Su does too. Something in the corner of her eye flashes and suddenly she jerks back, cool metal biting into her wrists and slamming her against a fallen tree. The air rushes out of her in an _oomph_ and she growls, feeling her face twist with a snarl as she catches her breath.

 

The other woman is holding her ground, keeping herself between Asami and her son, and the others are rushing to do the same. They're staring at her with wide, wary eyes and she hears _what the hell is happening_ and _she's been acting weird since_ but she doesn't feel concern, just the storm inside roaring in approval. She pulls and twists in the restraints, a unitelligible scream tearing from her throat, until suddenly the metal creaks and-

 

" **In the name of the Great Uniter, surrender! Resist and there will be no mercy! _"_**

****

The first mecha tank plows through into the middle of the camp, and there's a second of stunned silence as they register what's happening. Lin and Su move together, slamming their feet against the ground in sync, and the earth surges up to swallow the machine. Lightning arcs from Mako's fingertips to the suit and burns it out, but their victory is short-lived and another one of the mechanised weapons lumbers into view.

****

The next few seconds are an absolute chaos. Bumi grabs his nieces and nephew and takes flight before the soldiers can get them, but for others the metal whips are too fast and pull them into the brush before they can even react.  The Beifongs raise the earth around themselves just as the mechas breathe fire everywhere, setting the dense woodland ablaze. Asami drops to the ground, panting for breath, and watches in horror as Tenzin’s feet are swiped out from under him and he too disappears.

 

A crash to her right snaps her out of it, and she turns just in time to see a mecha suit coming straight for her. She throws herself forward, narrowly avoiding a metal fist crashing down behind her, but lands off balance and the dirt zooms up to meet her. It tastes foul and singed in her mouth and her stomach turns as she scrabbles away, and before she can make it a few feet something snakes around her ankles and hoists her into the air.

 

The world spins around her in a disorienting blur of red and green and orange, and panic grips her. The inferno within rails in defiance and swells, burning far stronger than the one around her, and without willing it, her hands shoot out like how she saw Korra’s do a thousand times before and she's momentarily blinded when bright, bright fire blooms from her open palms and swells, engulfing the mecha entirely, and it crashes backwards with a metallic screech. It’s a straight drop back to the forest floor, the impact jarring her shoulder painfully, and as she barely has time to grasp what she’s done when the mecha splits open and the soldier inside leaps out, the knife in his hand glinting as he jabs at her. She blocks his forearm, twists his wrist until the man cries out and rams her knee into his jaw, knocking him out cold.

 

“ASAMI!”

 

Mako comes running out of left field, with his brother trailing behind. Bobbing and weaving, he ducks under a whip and the ground beneath his feet shoots him up into the air, vaulting him over a plume of fire he bends straight back into the crowd of mecha suits. Bolin stomps down and the earth yawns open in front of him, boiling lava spewing out and trapping them where they stand.

 

"We gotta leave now!" Mako yells. "Asami, snap out of it!"

 

"I- I'm good," she answers shakily. It feels like she's coming off her high, the heat receding back into a dull throb in the back of her head, and it's beginning to sink in but now is neither the time nor the place. "Tenzin’s been taken. Where are the others?"

 

“The Beifongs are tunnelling," Bolin yells. “Bumi’s taking some of the airbenders over to Chima Valley, and the others are heading for Fire Nation territory.”

 

She’s about to reply when something behind them catches her eye-

 

“Get down!”

 

~oOo~

 

 

Her entire body is sore; her head is pounding like crazy and someone is calling her name again and again, and it’s only making the headache worse. Asami groans, cracks open one eye and immediately regrets it because the sun’s far too bright and stings worse than a wasp beetle. Still, she makes herself look and there’s a painful moment where she’s completely blind before the world starts coming into focus, and she looks up to see that there’s a dark shape silhouetted against the light.

 

“Mako? Bolin? What is it?”

 

“I’m afraid I haven’t see your friends around, honey. But you’re here, now. I’ve missed you so much.”  
  
Her heart stops. Her ears are ringing, but that voice cuts through clear as day. It's a voice she hasn’t heard in a long, long time.

 

“Mom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you thank you thank you! All the views, kudos's (kudoses?) are very much appreciated! I really do love hearing feedback on how to improve my story/ability to compose a coherent paragraph so please, please, please leave your comments down below :)
> 
> Also, since my first chapter Bryke have confirmed Korrasami as canon (WOOT) and I know, I'm late to the train but that's awesome, guys. I look forward to the day when LGBTQ relationships are dealt with in all walks of life, be it TV or otherwise, with about as much fanfare as any other relationship (equality, y'all) but unfortunately, that day is not today and we still need people and shows as influential as ATLA and LoK to promote these rights to the next generation in a positive manner. So thank you, everyone who has ever worked on LoK, for building a universe that values not you look like or who you love, but one that tells people that it is their values and actions that will determine how their lives will turn out.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a been a bit of rollercoaster on the internet ever since the release of the finale, but it seems to be the overwhelming consensus that Korra and Asami are finally together after everything they've been through. So can I just say how happy I am Korrasami is canon?
> 
> That is not to say other shippers are wrong - such is the nature of shipping in the first place (Makorra shippers ship away, please). But the people who object to Korrasami for reasons like, "OMG they're just really good friends, stop making everything gay" aren't right. As far as I can see, the development of their relationship has been as heavily implied as it could possibly have been on a show by Nickelodeon (sidenote - allowing heterosexual relationships in children's TV shows or TV, movies or video games in general whilst barring homosexual ones and labeling them as somehow more "adult" is not being protective of peoples' minds, it's homophobic and just another big problem in the entertainment industry) and in the words of Mike DiMartino, "if you think this final shot was denoting mere friendship, you're kidding yourself".


End file.
